_
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in

Independent. Informative. Intelligent.

Advertisement

Elections

The House primary list lengthens

Two Democrats who’ve sometimes been part of House Speaker Destin Hall’s “working supermajority” face party primaries in the spring. Charlotte minister Rodney Sadler is running against District 106 incumbent Rep. Carla Cunningham, while Williamston resident Patricia Smith has signed up to oppose District 23 incumbent Shelly Willingham. Both incumbents have joined Republicans at times...

By Ray Gronberg

December 8, 2025

GOP Senate primary slate shapes up

Phil Berger and Sam Page aren’t going to have the only hot Republican primary for a state Senate seat in March. Former state Rep. Kevin Crutchfield, R-Cabarrus, is getting back into elective politics via a challenge to incumbent District 34 Sen. Chris Measmer, R-Cabarrus. Measmer is in his eighth month of service...

By Ray Gronberg

December 8, 2025

Warren stepping at end of 8th term; seeks court clerk office in Rowan

State Rep. Harry Warren, R-Rowan, is calling time on his legislative career after 2026 but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s ending his political career. Instead of seeking re-election, Warren has filed to run for clerk of court in Rowan County, setting up a primary with incumbent Todd Wyrick. The District...

By Ray Gronberg

December 5, 2025

Primaries on tap in N.C. House races

Filing for the 2026 election opened on Monday and we’re already starting to see some primaries shape up. These are headlined, of course, by the Republican-side Phil Berger-Sam Page tilt for the state Senate District 26 seat representing Rockingham and rural Guilford counties. As of this writing (just before 5...

By Ray Gronberg

December 2, 2025

Moffitt: Not endorsing in Johnson-Hager primary

Sen. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, wants one and all to understand that he’s staying neutral in the upcoming GOP primary between Rep. Jake Johnson, R-Polk, and former House Majority Leader Mike Hager, R-Rutherford. “Trust is essential to my ability to craft complex, bipartisan legislation. Nothing undermines it more quickly than the...

By Ray Gronberg

December 1, 2025

Johnson, Hager gear up for primary battle

Come spring, the eyes of North Carolina’s political community are going to be locked on Rockingham and Guilford County to see how Senate leader Phil Berger fares against GOP primary challenger Sam Page. But it’s looking like there’s another primary in western North Carolina that will command attention. No, we...

By Ray Gronberg

November 24, 2025

The GOP board in 2026

With the publication of the Locke Foundation’s annual Civitas Partisan Index in conjunction with last week’s national- and local-election results, tongues are already wagging about what they might portend for the 2027-28 General Assembly. So far, the view among Republican analysts is that Democrats might pick off a few GOP...

By Welcome

November 11, 2025

GOP loses ground in Charlotte

There is a partisan element to some of these outcomes, even if on the ballot they were nonpartisan races. Perkins, Matheny, Waddell and Robinson are Republicans who lost to Democrats. In Charlotte, where candidates for city office run on party labels, the only Republican winner City Council incumbent Ed Driggs, who...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

Tough night for incumbants

Tuesday wasn’t exactly a great night for incumbents in a number of the state’s larger cities. Our non-exhaustive review of this year’s election results begins in Greensboro, where voters sacked a trio of City Council incumbents. The highest-profile of these was District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, who heads Downtown Greensboro...

By Ray Gronberg

November 6, 2025

Meck transit tax passes

The returns late Tuesday evening are still both incomplete and unofficial, but Mecklenburg County voters appear to have approved the proposed 1-cent sales-tax surcharge to pay for transit and road construction. State Board of Elections figures with all but three precincts yet to report showed the tax referendum passing with...

By Ray Gronberg

November 5, 2025

New Congressional map unveiled

General Assembly leaders have rolled out their proposed Congressional redistricting, which is designed to make the First District seat in northeast North Carolina more favorable to a Republican candidate. The map change would affect 11 counties and also change the Third District, whose incumbent is Greenville Republican U.S. Rep. Greg...

By Ray Gronberg

October 17, 2025

New Congressional map incoming next week

Republican leaders in the General Assembly say they’re going to revamp the boundaries of North Carolina’s Congressional districts next week to give their party one more seat in the state’s U.S House delegation. In practice, that means the assurance of a 11-3 GOP delegation majority by making it a lot...

By Ray Gronberg

October 16, 2025

GOP First District field gains third contender

The GOP side of the race for North Carolina’s First District U.S. House seat is beginning to get a little crowded. Lenoir County Commissioner Eric Rouse announced this week that he’s joining a field that already includes state Sen. Bobby Hanig and Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson. Rouse indicated via...

By Ray Gronberg

October 9, 2025

Edwards gets a primary

U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-11th, appears likely to face a challenge in next spring’s Republican primary. Adam R. Smith, an Army veteran, announced his candidacy on Thursday. Via a news release, he said he’s running because he’s fed up “after a decade of watching liberal Marxism erode our Constitution, flood...

By Welcome

October 6, 2025

Berger bucks

Senate leader Phil Berger has raised 71 times as much money as his GOP primary challenger so far in in the 2025-26 election cycle, but his supporters aren’t taking it for granted that he’s got enough. Early in September, Martin Marietta CEO Ward Nye circulated a fundraising appeal to fellow...

By Ray Gronberg

September 25, 2025

Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin